Whazup With the Bears?

 

The Chicago Bears went 7-9 last season.  Starting linebacker Brian Urlacher missed most of the season due to injury, and even with their star middle linebacker healthy I didn’t feel that the team would do much better this year.  But, oh was I wrong.

The Bears are 8-3 and are coming off an impressive win against a team that I would’ve ranked in my top 3 in the NFL leading into last weekend the Philadelphia Eagles.  Bears defensive end Julius Peppers  and the rest of the front seven contained Michael Vick and had 4 sacks.  The Bears won 31-26, but the game wasn’t quite as close as the score.

One of my main questions about this team was the passing game, but on Sunday quarterback Jay Cutler threw for 247 yards with 4 TDs.  His former teammate at Vanderbilt, Earl Bennett, was his favorite target in the game.  Bennett had four receptions for 56 yards, with 2 receiving touchdowns.  Cutler has completed nearly 62% of his passes, this season, throwing 16 TDs with only 10 interceptions.  Last season he led the league in interceptions with 26.  With Chicago’s defense, if Cutler can limit his mistakes, this team can win a game or two in the playoffs.

The biggest area of weakness for the Bears was their offensive line this season.  After allowing a record 9 sacks in the first half to the New York Giants in a nationally televised game on Sunday night, the unit seems to have pulled it together.  Center Olin Kreutz is a 13 year veteran and started all 11 games for Chicago this year.  He and offensive coordinator Mike Martz may have had a conversation on how to improve the line play.  Chicago did give up four sacks against Philly on Sunday, but Cutler is no longer a tackling dummy back there.  Another area the Bears can improve on as the weather gets colder is in the running game.  Starting running back Matt Forte has run for 283 yards in his last 3 games, but on the season only totals 684 yards.  Chester Taylor can also be a bigger factor on 3rd downs, and needs to continue to get at least 8 touches a game. 

The Bears play the Lions on Sunday, but still have to face New England, Green Bay, and the Jets.  They also have the Vikings mixed in there somewhere (who I think along with the Cowboys are the most disppointing team in the league).  The Bears are in 1st place in the NFC North and nothing is stopping them from winning 11 games and getting home field advantage throughout the playoffs.